The guide also contains information on extra cold storage facilities and equipment that may ease the pressure on your kitchen over the Christmas period and a contingency check list of considerations to make, if you are faced with a kitchen emergency.

To download our FREE contingency document, click here. Alternatively, if you would like to receive a hard copy version, send an email request to postbox@pkl.co.uk

Wednesday, 11 November 2009

PKL Group, (Portable Kitchens limited), are market leaders in the supply of portable kitchens for hire. The hire of portable kitchens has been at the very heart of our business for nearly 25 years, and since then we have developed a wide range of solutions to cater for a wide range of needs and end users, which are available to hire from just a few days, to a number of years.

We have a range of portable kitchens, large and small, ready to hire depending on your requirement.

Our field kitchen is the smallest in our range of portable kitchens and provides space for 2 members of staff to work comfortably. This kitchen can serve up to 500 meals per session and is popular for hire in care homes and smaller pubs and restaurants.

PKL Mini Kitchens provide space for 2-3 members of staff to work comfortably at one time and are capable of producing up to 1,000 meals per session. These kitchens are typically hired by nursing homes, small hotels, event caterers and smaller schools.

Magnum Kitchens are the largest stand-alone portable kitchen units in our range, and are capable of supplying over 1,000 meals in one session. Magnum kitchens provide space for up to 5 members of staff to work comfortably at once and are typically hired by hotels, prisons, the armed forces, large scale event caterers, large scale commercial / industrial caterers, education sector.

The Triton Kitchen is the most comprehensive in our range of portable kitchens, incorporating ware washing, preparation and food storage and production areas. Our Triton Kitchens allow for up to 10 staff to work together comfortably and can be used to produce over 2,000 meals in one session. Triton Kitchens are typically hire by the MOD, hospitals, large restaurants, large scale commercial / industrial caterers, high volume staff catering and the education sector.

PKL also supplies a range of preparation and ancillary units that can be linked to our Portable Kitchens including preparation kitchens, dishwash units cold and dry storage units.

Bespoke Facilities to Suit Your Needs

Our Portable Kitchens and preparation units can be linked together to produce a bespoke facility to suit your needs, whatever your size of catering requirement.

To help provide a starting point, or to offer you a quick and effective solution, we have devised a range of Proven Packages, combinations of our units linked together to provide a number of different kitchen facilities, suitable for serving anywhere from 100 to 1000s of meals per session.

Our kitchens can be equipped from our range of extensive range of over 8,000 items of catering equipment.

Wednesday, 28 October 2009

The Beijing Summer Olympics was the largest Olympics ever – and this was also true of the athletes dining facility in the Olympic Village. There were 16,000 athletes and officials from 204 countries, as well as 10,000 staff and guests – all to be fed 24 hours a day.

Working through the master caterer ARAMARK, PKL were responsible for the design liaison, specification, supply, installation and 24 hour maintenance of all the foodservice equipment and coolroom facilities, in an area, which covered 20,000 sqm or three soccer pitches.

To ensure a successful delivery, PKL established a project office in Beijing 12 months before the Games began. In addition to permanent PKL management and engineering staff, a team of Chinese project managers, translators and administrators were employed overcome any language, cultural and technical hurdles. All facilities were designed in full compliance to local fire, hygiene and construction standards.

The key operational factor of this project was the ability of PKL to utilise prefabricated complex Portable Kitchen modules, and ship them worldwide quickly and cost effectively. All the equipment used was from the PKL hire fleet and at the end of the Games was re-hired to other projects.

Friday, 23 October 2009

PKL Group and all of our engineers are included on the Gas Safe Register, ensuring that the company works legally and competently within current legislation when installing items of gas powered catering equipment.

The Gas Safe Register deals with all aspects of the downstream gas industry covered by the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 and the Gas Safety (Installation and Use). Regulations 1994 as amended and applied by the Gas Safety (Application) Order 1996 in the Isle of Man.

Friday, 9 October 2009

PKL Group has won the Business Innovation award and was named runner up in the overall Business of the Year Category at this year’s Gloucestershire Business Awards.

The event, which showcased the best in Gloucestershire businesses, was held at Cheltenham Racecourse and was attended by nearly 650 people. Over 300 companies throughout the county entered.

PKL Group won the award for Business Innovation, gaining recognition for a number of products including the KitchenPod and KitchenFM as well as delivering innovative solutions at large scale events, such as the Athletes Village Dining and media catering facilities at the Olympic Games in Beijing.

Judges were particularly impressed with the innovative culture that runs through the company and the attitude of management to develop and encourage innovation from staff throughout the company.

SAFEcontractor is applicable to most sectors although it is particularly relevant to food manufacture, property, facilities management, retail and leisure sectors, all of which are big users of contract services.

Darran Hughes; Operations Director of SAFEcontractor said, "Major organisations can no longer run the risk of employing contractors who are not able to prove that they have sound health and safety policies".

"More companies need to understand the importance of adopting good risk management in the way that PKL has done. The firms’ high standard has set an example, which hopefully will be followed by other companies within the sector".

Under the SAFEcontractor system, businesses undergo a vetting process, which examines health and safety procedures and their track record for safe practice.

Those companies meeting the high standard are included on a database, which is accessible to registered users only via a website, www.safecontractor.com.

Employer-organisations who sign up to the scheme can access the database, which enables them to vet potential contractors before they even set foot on site. These employers agree that, as users of the scheme, they will engage only those who have received accreditation.

Over one hundred and twenty major nation-wide businesses, from several key sectors, have signed up to use the scheme when selecting contractors for services such as building, cleaning, maintenance, refurbishment or electrical and mechanical work.

The project was in response to an urgent kitchen enquiry and design and brief costs were supplied to the client within a matter of hours, while the first portable kitchen units were dispatched from the UK within 72 hours.

The facility comprised of seven military kitchens capable of feeding 5,000 men each. The complex was made up from Portable Kitchen units and commercial catering equipment and utilised PKL’s unique containerised canopy. This approach enabled the equipment and associated items to be mobilised ready for shipping very quickly.

The Portable Kitchens were transported by heavy-lift Antonov transport planes and installation of the first facility commenced within 12 hours of arrival.

Within the UK we deal with emergency enquiries on a daily basis, and are able to supply Portable Kitchens and catering equipment for hire at very short notice. Typical emergencies we are asked to provide temporary catering facilities to cover include kitchen fires, kitchen flooding and unforeseen kitchen closure.

Friday, 4 September 2009

The All African Games is the largest athletics sporting event on the continent. Over 2,000 athletes from 53 African countries attended the 2 week event in October 2003 and all wanted to take advantage of the world class event catering facilities.

With so many athletes to feed in such a short time period, the organising committee needed to be sure that the foodservice equipment was able to cope and met the most rigorous of food hygiene standards. PKL was first choice.

We project managed the entire delivery and installation procedure and had trained engineers on site at all times to service the equipment during the operating period.

PKL has long been associated with the world's major sporting events and have provided Portable Kitchens and first class event catering facilities to the World Student Games, Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games - but the All African Games was a first.

Wednesday, 26 August 2009

PKL's experience of using Portable Kitchens allowed Middle Temple to continue catering during a refurbishment. The location of Middle Temple Great Hall, the age of the building and surrounding buildings meant PKL had to overcome a number of site restrictions including weight sensitive lanes and restricted space.

The complexity of the project meant months of site assessments and design drafts to allow for a workable facility in this location. The only way to construct a facility using mobile kitchens to meet all the catering needs and site requirements was to build upwards.

It was the first project of this type for PKL and the final design comprised a 4-level, 8 unit stacked system using ISO Portable Kitchens.

A link into the service areas of the Great Hall was incorporated and deliveries to each level of the facility were achieved by means of a hoist on one side of the gantry. A staircase was also built alongside the units to provide access to other levels.

The Great Hall stands amongst many other buildings in a small lane, PKL devised a carbon filtration extraction system that ensured any escaping grease or fumes would be caught preserving the buildings and immediate environment.

Wednesday, 19 August 2009

The London School Kitchens Forum in July, organised jointly by PKL and the Local Authority Caterers Association (LACA), addressed a number of key issues facing catering in schools.

Delegates included catering and facilities management specialists from a number of local authorities, as well as representatives from associations and central government.

A key focus of the day was to consider the opportunities to improve catering facilities within the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) and Primary Capital Programme initiatives, stimulating lively discussions between speakers and delegates.

Speakers included LACA Chair Berverley Baker, A partner from EC Harris and representatives from the School Food Trust. To read more on the outcomes of the Forum, and to register your interest for the Next PKL School Kitchens Forum, please vist the link below:

Friday, 7 August 2009

The Asian Games is one of the largest sporting events in the World and XV Asiad in Doha proved no exception with athletes from a record number of 45 countries participating.

The athletes village dining facility catered for 10,000 athletes and 6,000 staff, and was capable of serving 60,000 meals a day and included seating for nearly 5,000 diners while kitchen and dining facilities supplied to the Media Press Centre (MPC) catered for up to 5,000 media personnel 24 hours a day.

All the foodservice equipment was provided from the PKL hire fleet and the key to the success of this project was the prefabrication of complex Portable Kitchen modules off site.

These were assembled in the UK and shipped, fully fitted to Doha. As well as equipment, the Portable Kitchens also contained the extraction systems, fire systems plus all wiring, plumbing and requisite health and safety features necessary for operation in Doha.

PKL are experts in delivering large scale temporary kitchen facilities for major events, and have also supplied similar facilities for the Commonwealth games in Manchester and Melbourne and the last three Olympic games.

As part of an £80m PFI project, NMUH is undergoing a major building programme that will renew around half of the Trust’s estate and co-locate all of its services within a single, state-of the art facility.

The Trust was keen to minimise disruption to those areas of the hospital that remain operational, so provision of high quality catering facilities was a key criterion. From the very early planning stages of the project, PKL worked closely with catering provider Medirest (part of Compass Group) and main contractor Bouygues UK, to understand their needs and to ensure the temporary structure met those requirements.

“This is one of the best temporary kitchen and restaurant facilities we have ever had” said Medirest Contracts Manager Dominic Donylal. “Customers are amazed at the quality of the facility when they enter the restaurant area and experience the bright, cheerful environment. It’s easily as good as many high street restaurants,” he added.

Dining facilities within the complex include a main restaurant with hot and cold serveries and a Deli Marche coffee shop area. The retail unit can seat over 100 people at any given time. These areas are served by a full open plan production kitchen with separate cold storage, dry storage and potwash areas.

There are also separate food preparation areas for the staff restaurant and for the preparation of food going to the hospital wards. The latter uses Medirest’s innovative Steamplicity steam pressure cooking system, which maximises the taste and nutritional value of the food.
Ancillary facilities include customer toilets, staff changing and showering facilities and an office area for restaurant management. Each section of the restaurant and dining complex was pre-fabricated at PKL’s production facility and delivered to site in modules for assembly in situ.

Wednesday, 22 July 2009

School Kitchen Refurbishment Project - Temporary Kitchen and Dining to feed 400 at School

PKL supplied an open plan kitchen and dining complex to feed up to 400 pupils at Winterbourne Infant School in Croydon. The kitchen and dining complex is providing the school with a semi-permanent solution and will be on-site for several years until a new permanent facility is built.
The kitchen provides fresh preparation, hot production and cold storage facilities to ensure that healthy school meals can be prepared and served on-site, while space is provided for over 200 pupils to dine in one sitting.

“The new kitchen is better equipped than its predecessor, so we have more scope to enhance the meals in line with best practice for school meals. This arrangement transfers all of the financial risk relating to the equipment to PKL so the Council is not faced with any unforeseen expenditure.”

Pearl Knights, London Borough of Croydon
The procurement process was undertaken utilising the Buying Solutions agency. Buying Solutions enables users to maximise value for money in their procurement activities by leveraging public sector purchasing power in order to deliver significant cost savings. Users are fully compliant with EU purchasing legislation and statutory regulations, ensuring best practice.

The complete facility included, kitchen and dining area, snack shop and male, female and disabled toilets, including baby change room. The PKL built facility was operational within 3 weeks of the initial phone call, using traditional building methods this would have taken over 12 months.

We assign a PKL Project Manager to all commercial kitchen rental projects to ensure all processes run smoothly from initial design through to installation and commissioning. A time line and mandatory health and safety information will be provided at the beginning of every commercial kitchen rental project along with risk assessments, method statements and a safety plan for the works.

Thursday, 9 July 2009

The open plan design offers full visibility without compromising on production or storage space. Benefiting from lighter conditions and improved airflow the PKL open plan temporary kitchen is a practical, safe environment for staff and inmates.

Security was greater improved by reducing the number of doors and having suited locks throughout.

We assign a PKL Project Manager to every temporary kitchen hire to ensure all processes run smoothly from initial design through to installation and commissioning. A time line and mandatory health and safety information will be provided at the beginning of every project along with risk assessments, method statements and a safety plan for the works.

Thursday, 2 July 2009

The Commonwealth games in Melbourne 2006 saw 4,500 athletes competing for honours from 72 countries around the world. PKL provided catering facilities for the ‘Games Village’, which supplied on average 20,000 meals per day for athletes, officials and visitors alike over a 25-day period.

PKL were responsible for the specification, supply and installation of all the foodservice equipment at the main dining facility within the Athletes Village. This amounted to over 1,500 items, all of which were also maintained by PKL. The kitchens were 1,250m2 and the dining hall 5,000m2, allowing seating for up to 2,000 people at any one time.

All the foodservice equipment was provided from the PKL hire fleet and the key to the success of this project was the prefabrication of complex Portable Kitchen modules off site. These were assembled in the UK and shipped, fully fitted to Melbourne.

As well as equipment, the Portable Kitchens also contained the extraction systems, fire systems plus all wiring, plumbing and requisite health and safety features necessary for operating in Melbourne.

PKL are experts in delivering large scale portable kitchen facilities for major events, and have also supplied similar facilities for the Commonwealth games in Manchester, the Asian Games in Doha and the last three Olympic games.

Thursday, 25 June 2009

HMS Invincible was host to the Queen and other international VIP's during the Trafalgar 200 celebrations.

The events, held aboard the ship, required extra catering facilities for which the Royal Navy turned to PKL to provide a portable kitchen facility.

Docked in Portsmouth the portable kitchens, pre fitted with the catering equipment, were craned onto the deck of the ship and lowered down the flight deck before being secured in place, as the ship would be at sea during the events.

All electrics had to be made compatible with that of the ships electrics to allow the catering equipment and extraction to function Our Project Management team were able to quickly commission and install all the kitchens and catering equipment within just 5 hours.

A marquee structure was erected to form the dining and kitchen areas. Within 1 day PKL installed mobile extraction canopies and catering equipment into the space creating a commercial kitchen facility.

The mobile canopies have all the health and safety features of fitted extraction and arrive pre-fitted with equipment for immediate use. Our experience providing facilities for event catering has allowed us to adapt our service by offering event babysitting services by a specialist PKL event catering engineer.

PKL planned, designed and installed all the catering equipment hired by Westonbirt after working closely with their catering team to understand their exact requirements.

Commercial Catering equipment hire allows the client to exchange or upgrade their equipment at any point throughout their contract, allowing them to keep up to date with trends and health and safety requirements.

PKL provide full technical support on all catering equipment hires giving Westonbirt complete peace of mind.

"We received top quality branded equipment on a small budget from an experienced company." Craig Doyle Head Chef, Westonbirt Arboretum.

Thursday, 4 June 2009

The mobile kitchens had to be positioned along a severe drop between listed trees, and were joined by walkways enabling access into the existing dining room.

The emergency kitchen facility was successfully installed within a week and remained in place for a further 16 weeks. The facility consisted of production and preparation mobile kitchens as well as two servery units, three coldrooms, a dry store and offices.

Thursday, 28 May 2009

PKL Group constructed a prison kitchen for a temporary custodial facility built alongside existing prison buildings.

Working to a tight deadline, PKL supplied a 560m2 System Kitchen to site, 13 weeks after receiving the order from the main contractor. The kitchen was delivered fully equipped and was handed over to the client eight weeks later.

The System Kitchen was built using off-site construction techniques, which greatly reduced the overall lead-time of the project. The kitchen, which contains a number of unique features, is designed to blend in with its surroundings and is fully relocatable so that it can easily be moved to another part of the site if needed.

PKL has over 20 years’ experience of designing modular buildings and, using the very latest off-site construction techniques, has delivered many System Kitchen projects throughout the UK.

A System Kitchen can adhere to the latest in prison design specifications, while being tailor-made for the facility in question. It can be adapted according to the equipment required, the amount of people catered for, staffing levels and the number of meals that will be served each day.

Specifying a System Kitchen can drastically reduce the overall timescale of a project, as design and off-site building takes place at the same time as work on the construction site. The kitchen arrives on-site fully equipped, negating any fit-out time, and it is ready for connection to the required utilities.

Wednesday, 20 May 2009

PKL supply a range of temporary kitchens and dining facilities to hire for schools, colleges and universities. This enables the continued provision of meals during periods of kitchen refurbishment and upgrade.

Temporary kitchens can either be linked to existing buildings or supplied as part of a kitchen and dining complex. We have a range of over 900 Portable Kitchens and ancillary support units ensuring that we can supply the temporary catering facilities to suit your exact requirements, regardless of whether you are serving 10, 100 or over 1000 meals per day.

For our complete range of temporary and permanent kitchen and dining solutions for the education sector, please view our brand new website www.schoolkitchens.com

Monday, 4 May 2009

PKL Group has launched schoolkitchens.com a website to promote kitchens and catering equipment solutions for the education sector. The site provides information for schools, colleges and universities who have a requirement for, or are considering a new build or refurbishment kitchen project.

PKL offers a wide range of solutions to the education sector including temporary kitchens for school kitchen refurbishment, KitchenPods (new school kitchens for primary schools), permanent modular kitchens and a wide range of catering equipment solutions for existing school kitchen facilities.

Schoolkitchens.com also provides a wide range of information to schools and local authorities with regards to funding initiatives available to them for development of school dining facilities, who to contact for more information and relevant organisations who able to provide more information about school kitchens and school catering issues.

Thursday, 30 April 2009

PKL supplied the Alexandra Hospital in Worcestershire with a complete catering estate with the capability to provide up to 4 million meals per year. The hospital was supplied through PKL’s KitchenFM – a turnkey service offering an attractive, cost effective alternative to buying catering equipment. The tailor-made kitchens were up and running just six weeks after the initial order.

With PKL installing, managing and maintaining the catering estate at the Alexandra, the Trust management are free to concentrate on the day-to-day running of the hospital and focus on looking after patients.

Through KitchenFM, catering equipment is supplied capital free, with the hospital paying a fixed, off-balance-sheet monthly payment. The catering equipment was supplied by PKL direct to the NHS trust and was delivered and installed within 6 weeks of receiving the initial order.

To read more about our installation at the Alexandra Hospital and for further infortmation regarding the wide range of catering equipment and Portable Kitchens for hire offered by PKL please click here.

Tuesday, 21 April 2009

PKL is delighted to announce that the company has successfully received a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the category for International Trade, for work supplying catering and healthcare products to worldwide markets.

The Queen’s Awards are the UK’s most prestigious awards for business performance and recognise and reward outstanding achievement by UK companies.The Awards are made each year by the Queen, on the advice of the Prime Minister who is assisted by an Advisory Committee that includes representatives of Government, industry and commerce, and the trade unions.

This award represents a significant achievement for PKL and the company is proud to be receiving such a prestigious honour. On receiving the award, PKL Group’s Commercial Director, Peter Schad said:

“Receiving a Queens Award for Enterprise is a great honour for the company. The award recognises our achievements and the hard work undertaken by our staff. PKL really represents Britain at its best abroad!”

PKL Group (UK) Ltd has been trading since 1988 and is the world leader in the sale and rental of modular catering and healthcare systems. The company’s products, which include Portable Kitchens, heavy duty catering equipment and operating theatres are prefabricated in the UK and are quick and easy to export.

PKL’s worldwide export earnings have increased by over five times in three years with main markets including the Middle East, Asia and Africa. This has meant supplying and installing facilities in often dangerous and challenging conditions in countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, DR Congo, Chad and Nigeria.

PKL has supplied to a wide number of major sporting events around the world including temporary dining facilities for the Athletes Village for the last three Olympic games at Sydney, Athens and Beijing, with each installation providing its own set of unique challenges, which the company has successfully overcome.

Within the UK, PKL is the leading supplier of temporary kitchens and catering equipment for hire, with over 900 Portable Kitchens and over 8,000 items of catering equipment in the company’s portfolio.

Thursday, 12 February 2009

If you are looking to build new kitchen and dining facilities as part of your school's BSF programme, PKL supply permanent modular buildings fully equipped to your specification.

System Kitchens from PKL, are permanent modular buildings constructed off site to your exact requirements. The use off offsite construction techniques means that overall construction time can be greatly reduced, as construction takes place simultaneously with work on site. In addition, as your new kitchen is being manufactured under factory controlled conditions, it less affected by unknown variables and allows a greater control over build costs.

Our team of in house designers can produce a facility to meet your exact requirements while you can specify catering facilities from our range of over 8000 items of equipment.

Once constructed, the System Kitchen is delivered to site, the modules linked and the facility commissioned by our in house team of engineers.

System Kitchens are also specified for Hub / Central Production units which are used to provide hot school meals for a number of schools in one area.

Thursday, 29 January 2009

With many schools either about to receive, or already receiving Building Schools for the Future or Primary Capital Program funding, many establishments will be looking at upgrading their kitchen buildings, equipment and dining rooms.

In addition, PKL can also supply temporary Portable Kitchen facilities for construction companies working on school site upgrades.

PKL is a Buying Solutions accredited supplier, enabling public sector and government departments to purchase or hire products through the company, safe in the knowledge that they are Fully Compliant" with UK and EU legislation and statutory legislation. Buying solutions are committed to creating cost and process savings to end users by leveraging public sector buying power. Buying Solutions accredited companies are pre tendered to supply Public Sector organisations within the UK.

Our products are specified for a wide range of requirements including a complete new kitchen, temporary kitchens for times of refurbishment and catering equipment for the education sector.

We have worked hand in hand with schools and local authorities over the last 20 years to provide a wide range of kitchen and catering solutions for schools, colleges and universities. Projects within the last year include:

PKL are a Buying solutions accredited supplier, meaning local authorities and schools can procure products and benefit from cost savings leveraged from using a national government procurement organisation. This is turn helps local authorities meet spending targets set by the Government.

The use of Buying Solutions also means that users are fully compliant with UK and European procurement legislation.

For further information on procuring products and services through the Buying Solutions Frameworks, contact the Buying Solutions Service Desk on 0845 410 2222, or email custcare@ogcbs.gsi.gov.uk